North Korea’s state-run media announced on 16 November that the country recently conducted a test of what it described as a “newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon”: a move that comes amid stalled talks with the US over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

The event, which presumably took place at the test ground of the country’s Academy of National Defence Science, was inspected by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who was quoted by Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying that development of the weapon had been commissioned by his late father and predecessor as North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il.

KCNA did not provide further details about the weapon or the test, stating only that the move, which it described as a “decisive turn in bolstering the fighting capacity of the Korean People’s Army”, demonstrated “the rapidly developing defence capability of the country”.

On the same day Yonhap News Agency quoted a South Korean government official as saying that the weapon is thought to be “a new type of long-range artillery” system.

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